Quotes from Ron Chernow

He would find a home where he would be accepted for what he did, not for who he was, and where he would no longer labor in the shadow of illegitimacy. His relentless drive, his wretched feelings of shame and degradation, and his precocious self-sufficiency combined to produce a young man with an insatiable craving for success.

Like Ben Franklin, Hamilton was mostly self-taught and probably snatched every spare moment to read. The

The Morgans were never litigious.

Because she confided in him and gave him adult responsibilities, he matured rapidly and acquired unusual confidence;

John D. Rockefeller was not only self-made but self-invented and already had unyielding faith in his own judgment.

To curb further abuse, Hamilton recommended a Supreme Court that would consist of twelve judges holding lifetime offices on good behavior. In this manner, each branch would maintain a salutary distance from popular passions.

As Eliza's strength declined, John grew more solicitous.

My suggestion is to err in getting what seems at present too much room rather than not enough.

I'm glad I made the trip.

Pierpont "will probably not think of asking us.

As he put it, "I know that in my own case I have been greatly helped by the confidence imposed in me since early boyhood."22 Of course, this boyhood responsibility took its toll on John D., who experienced little of the spontaneous joy or levity of youth.

Many people in the mid–nineteenth century kept such journals to enforce thrift and also objectify their moral performance.

While Rockefeller communicated with his subordinates in genteel fashion, discussing muscular tactics with unctuous euphemisms, his colleagues were less restrained and gloried in their brutal shenanigans.

Rockefeller knew that if he got greedy, other products could be substituted for kerosene, and this, too, curbed his appetite for excess profits.

Never resigned to his father's desertion and always fearing press exposure of his bigamy, John was still trying to lure his seventy-one-year-old father back to Eliza and away from the sinful second marriage.

Hamilton hit the ground running: the very next day, he arranged a fifty-thousand-dollar loan for the federal government from the Bank of New York. The day after that, a Sunday, he worked all day at the Treasury's new office on Broadway, just south of Trinity Church. He dashed off a plea to the Bank of North America in Philadelphia, asking for another fifty thousand dollars.

Harper had fundamentally miscalculated in approaching Rockefeller for money.

In December 1896, a humbled Carnegie at last consented to a sweeping deal.

I hope you will not be tempted into litigation. Life is too short for that."25

William Avery Rockefeller possessed the dash and virility that every young boy dreams of in a father.

Whenever his ambition was about to devour him, his conscience urged restraint.

With one check, Rockefeller might have relieved their anxiety forever, but he wanted to avert excessive dependence and keep alive a creative ambiguity about his intentions.

He was also a terrific showman, a trait he inherited from his father.

He favored vocational training for blacks, not intellectual equality with whites.